Calm before the storm
by Florin
Summary: Missing scene before Trumps of Doom. Luke's POV. Finished.
1. Unexpected contact

**Disclaimer: all characters belong to Roger Zelazny.  
Author's Note: This one is about Rinaldo's preparations for vendetta.**  
  
I don't know why I was so surprised when I had recognized the caller. I had probably got used to the fact that my mother was the only person contacting me via my trump. Dalt was obviously enjoying the impression he made.  
"Were you expecting someone else, Rinaldo?"  
"Wasn't expecting anyone, actually," I admitted. "Glad you learned how to use this thing, though."  
Dalt looked behind my back.  
"Interesting place. You mind if I come through?"  
"Sure," I sighed. "Just give me couple of minutes. Oh, and get rid of that cloak. It's... out of fashion here."  
I entered the hallway of the warehouse and made sure no one was around. Dalt contacted me again, and I brought him through.  
"So," Dalt inquired, "that's where you live? Pretty dim in here."  
"No," I explained. "I'm here on business."  
"Oh. What business?"  
I considered telling him, and decided, why not? "Come here," I led him into the storage room. Loaders eyed Dalt warily.  
"That's ok," I calmed them. "He's a friend of mine. Keep working."  
"They're your men? What are they loading?"  
"My key to success," I grinned. "Let me show you."  
I opened one of the boxes and disassembled a rifle while explaining him the entire firearms concept. He tried to look cool, but it was obvious that he was pretty much excited with the idea.  
"You should've told me earlier," he berated me. "I could..."  
"I'm not going for it - yet. Just relocating. You see, my platoon is in a different country."  
"Ok. Need assistance here?"  
"No, thanks. We are done already."  
"But there's plenty of it left..."  
"I don't have that many men. What's in the truck is more than enough."  
"The truck?"  
I don't know why, but my transport got him excited as well, even though I had told him it doesn't work in Amber.  
"All the weaponry needed for taking on Amber just in one such vehicle."  
"Don't be so sure. Corwin had two trucks full of these, and they are all in Amber now."  
"Wanna bet their forces have never bothered equipping firearms? They became fat and lazy since that Random jerk got on the throne."  
He kept admiring trucks capacity while I locked the storage and dismissed my team.  
"Thanks guys. See you in Albuquerque."  
I wondered if I should check on Melman - but I didn't see him as a serious threat anyway. He had never participated in any of those assasination attempts. Besides, I had a full truck of illegal weapons, and didn't want to hang around longer than neccesary.  
"Can you teach me how to drive this thing?" asked Dalt after we got into the truck and I started the engine. I turned to look at him. I didn't like that glint I saw in his eyes. We would he need it? It's not like he had any rifles to transport... But I had no reason to refuse. He could learn that anywhere else if he wanted to.  
"Sure. As soon as we cross the border."  
"You mean, bypass the border," corrected Dalt. 


	2. A deck of One

I left Dalt to keep practicing with the truck in Albuquerque. His driving wasn't that bad - for a medieval hulk. I didn't think I'd ever see that truck again (in one piece, at least). I wanted to start training my men right away, but I had to trump back to San-Francisco instead. It was April 29, and I had to be near Merle for the entire next day. No, it wasn't my birthday. Nor his. It was the day of assasination attempt on Merle "sitting duck" Corey, and I would be playing his invisible bodyguard. This time, however, would be the last. No matter how things would turn out.  
I called the office only to find out that Merle had quit one month ago. I didn't want to bother looking for him just yet. No rush. I was feeling melancholic. I was driving through the city without any conscious destination, thinking of the good old times. Suddenly, some very familiar buildings surrounded me. Gail's place. Cursing silently, I pushed the accelerator. I had neither reason nor desire to see her again. That's what I told myself. I was about to get back to the hotel, but it was too early, and I didn't want to be sitting all alone in my room for the rest of the evening. I needed to talk to someone. Someone... mortal. I chuckled. In the entire Shadow, I had no one to talk to. There were colleagues. I suspected that they all really hated me. I had been better than any of them since day one, so they simply chose to pretend that I didn't exist. My college buddies? Well, there were just the four of us. Of course, I could go check on Julia. And why not? She had been part of our little gang for a long time.  
  
Going upstairs, I was thinking why I hadn't called before coming here. Probably because I wanted to keep the delusion that at least somebody would be glad to see me as long as possible. I knocked at the door. She opened it and went back inside without saying a word. I closed the door behind me and followed her into the kitchen.  
"Coffee?" she asked. The way she was acting, one would think that we had just parted couple of hours ago.  
"Sure". I kept watching her, trying to figure out the reason of her weird behaviour. Her movements were absent-minded. She was on autopilot, concerned with something. Was it any of my business? What if it was something I could help her with? All these nasty things I was about to do made me feel like doing something good for a change.  
"You look worried," I probed. "Are you in a trouble of some kind?"  
"Nothing I can't handle," Julia smiled weakly. For some reason, I felt awkward.  
"Maybe I shouldn't have come. I wanted to give you a call first, but..."  
"That's okay, Luke," she interrupted, putting a cup in front of me. "I have already finished anyway."  
"Finished what?"  
"Stuff," she waved it off. I couldn't tell whether this "stuff" was important for her or something she really didn't give a damn about. With Julia, one can never tell.  
Coffee was good. Raising my cup so that it would conceal the direction of my gaze from Julia, I quickly scanned around the kitchen for... what? I had no idea. Yet, I found it. It was lying on the window-sill - one of my first successful trumps. Melman's room. Had I been someone like, say, Merle, I would've assumed that I had dropped it accidentally during my last visit, or some other "coincidence" crap like that. But I have a good memory on such things. Last time I had seen this trump, I was giving it to my mother. No doubt.  
"Got yourself a new hobby?" I asked nonchalantly. Julia traced my now open gaze.  
"What do you mean?" she asked in the same manner.  
"I've never seen you with cards before," I stated, standing up and heading towards the window. "Are you into solitairs? Got any buddies to play poker with? Or is it," I continued, picking up the card, "something like that Tarot stuff?"  
I waved my hand in the air mockingly. She gave me that "if you only knew" smile of hers. She was completely relaxed. She didn't know anything about me.  
"It's not for poker."  
"I can see that now. Didn't know such cards existed. What deck are they from?"  
"No deck."  
"Just one card?" I asked jokingly. "What kind of game can you play with one card?"  
"A complicated one," she grinned condescendingly. I turned around to look into the window and to hide a grin of my own. It rained heavily.  
"This trump has been drawn by hand," I noticed, toying with my keyring. "You know the artist?"  
Julia's reflection in the window stood up slowly. Very slowly.  
"How do you know it's a Trump?" 


	3. Talking in the dark

**A/N: Thanks to Elmtree for the idea on this one.  
Note on previous chapter: Sorry if I didn't make it clear enough, but Julia is NOT upset when she meets Luke. She is just so concentrated she barely notices things around her. She has some planning to do you know.**  
I was about to curse myself silently and realized that she could see my reflection in the window as well. Face, Rinaldo, keep the face! I turned to face her with apologetic smile.  
"Only one card, Julia. How can it not be?" I shrugged. She studied me carefully. My face didn't betray me. My keyring did.  
"Where did you get this stone?"  
I probably should have asked "What stone?", but she caught me off-guard here, and I automatically glanced at the piece of tragolith. When I looked back at her, her hand was in the air, lips whispering the spell. I ducked, and some sparks started dancing on the window glass above me. Then the lights went out, and the kitchen got plunged in darkness. I summoned the Pattern, and saw what I was afraid to see. In its magnificient imperfectness, the Broken Pattern was glowing in front of her.  
Her lips started moving again. I always have some spells hanging THIS time of year, and I quickly picked the most harmless one. I finished casting it before she did, and her hands started shaking uncontrollably, and soon the jitters started spreading all over her. Her sign disappeared, she barely had enough concentration to keep standing.  
"You'd better sit down, unless you want to end up on the floor," I advised, pouring myself another cup of coffee. I kept my sign around, though. Just in case. She followed my advice, still shaking.  
"Come on, it wasn't that strong at all," I said, sitting myself and taking a sip. "What was that all about anyway?"  
By the time I finished my coffee, she had stopped shaking. Almost.  
"You're h-here to kill me, r-right?"  
"Actually, I'm here to see an old friend of mine," I pointed out. "I wonder if I've confused the address. Why are you afraid of me?"  
"You're Merle's f-friend. And I'm working for his enemy."  
"Did Melman give you this trump?" I asked. Nod.  
"Merle has never told me why you two broke up," I said after a long pause, "but I never thought it was that ugly."  
"No!" she snapped, standing up rapidly. "I didn't know! I don't want him to get killed! Never wanted!"  
"Calm down," I said softly, forcing her back into the chair. She started shaking again, but for a different reason. "Tell me how it all started. How did they find you?"  
"They didn't find me," she sobbed. "I found them. I've been looking for them so hard it had to happen sooner or later."  
"Why?"  
"Merle. He took me for a walk one day. To the place that didn't... that wasn't..."  
"Shadowwalk," I nodded.  
"And the morning after, he was denying everything. Said it was all a dream. I couldn't just go on with that! Can you understand this?"  
"Yes. Of course, I can," I said soothingly. Merle. You are a fool. But who am I to talk, having broken up with my girlfriend because of that little stupid thing called conscience. I lowered myself back into the chair.  
"Your Pattern isn't broken," Julia said quietly. "You are... not human, too."  
"Depends on how you define human."  
"Who are you guys anyway," she asked, not listening to me. "Sorcerers? Aliens? Mutants? Products of my sick imagination?"  
"Don't put me in the same league with Merle. He doesn't even know who I am."  
"Doesn't know? Why?"  
"I have my reasons. That doesn't matter right now. All that matters is that I AM his friend, and I want to protect him. Tell me the rest of your story."  
"Melman told me he could give me the power I wanted," she started, wiping her tears. "And he did. There was that person, Master. Always hooded, strange voice. He took me into his castle for the last stage of my training."  
"Have this Master ever mentioned why he needed you?"  
"No."  
"Then how did you know that your Master wants Merle dead?"  
"Master has let me know that I was there because of Merle. Later, I returned to the castle and snooped around. Stupid thing to do, I know. But this mysterious Master got me so... intrigued. I thought that nothing bad could come out of this, even if I got caught. I didn't find any evidences - even on Master's gender. But I found an unfinished spell there. Something about ritual sacrifice of Son of Chaos."  
"And you figured it would be Merle?"  
"He was the only one I could think about. Wait..." she paused. "Maybe Master is after you?"  
"Master is after Merle. I know that."  
"How?"  
"I have already stopped several assasination attempts. Tomorrow is the next one, by the way."  
"How do you know THAT?"  
"Long story. Look, you want to help Merle or not? Then lets talk about something useful. Like what were you planning to do with that trump?"  
"Just watch Melman. I'll see if his is up to something."  
"And if he is?"  
"Well, I think I'm good enough to..."  
"Crap. He is the one who trained you. You are no match for him, I'm sure."  
"You have a better idea?"  
"Shhh. Let me think."  
Maybe it's time to take Melman out? But that would spook my mother, and he is just a pawn anyway. All I need to do is to reassure Julia. To keep her from doing something stupid.  
"Look. I have a plan. Merle will be safe. Trust me."  
"What plan? Tell me."  
She was still sobbing, but sounded demanding nevertheless. Hell, why not?  
"I want to... imprison him. I have made some special trumps. All I need to do is to slip them to Merle somehow and make sure he goes through any of them."  
She sat in silence for several minutes, then said something I had least expected.  
"Give them to me."  
The lightning flashed, painting the surroundings with the colours of Tir-Na Nog'th for one moment, changing her crying face into the mask of insidious grin. I blinked, and everything returned to normal. Just me and the horrified girl across the table. Horrified, but definitely not a coward.  
"I'll make sure he gets them."  
"Julia, are you sure it's..."  
"Come on, it's too dark in here."  
She flipped the switch in the living room. Lights turned on just fine. Quickly, she took a pen and a piece of paper, scribbled something on it, put it into the envelope, sealed it.  
"Give me the trumps, and give this to Merle. I'll take care of the rest."  
"All right," I said, giving her the parcel. "Don't do anything stupid."  
She walked me to the door, opened it, and asked suddenly, "So, it was all lie?"  
"What exactly?" I asked, crossing the threshold and turning to face her.  
"All of it. Your life."  
There was no accusation in her voice. Just curiosity.  
"More like a mask."  
"Mask... mask..." Julia repeated, as if this word had her hypnotised, then snapped out of it.  
"Thanks for stopping by, Luke. It was nice to see you again."  
I stood before the closed door for a while, thinking of what she had told me. Was she completely sincere with me? Could the entire story of hers be made up on spot? Crap. Recent encounter with Dalt had made me paranoid. No a bad thing, actually, but Julia... She was just a Shadow girl who had got into quite a trouble. Poor girl. Saved me a lot of time, though. If she succeeds, I won't have to babysit Merle for the entire day. I was tempted to read the letter, but then figured that I'd be able to read it all on Merle's face tomorrow.  
I got all wet by the time I got to my car. But the real storm was only about to begin. 


End file.
